I've been practicing non-stop for a few days now on these:
http://i2.tinypic.com/206j777.jpg
The leftmost (a Faultless) I could pick sometimes, but other times, the pins felt funny - it was as if as soon as I set pin four, pins one two and three would be jammed. I tried different orders of picking pins, different tensions, different directions, etc. I could use my hook and slam each pin over and over wildly and it would open, but picking one at a time, I would spend exhorbitant amounts of time and only occasionally open it. I didn't want to have to rake locks. I wanted to pick one at a time.
I bought the next (the Kwikset) to repin and practice with. I could not open it with more than two pins... Not reliably. I drafted post after post in the "Got Questions?" forum asking for help, but always discarded the draft in favor of trying some subtle variation on what I was doing. It was exhausting. The strange thing is, I could not use normal tensioners. If I just stuck the tensioner in the lock, no pin would set. If I barely touched the tensioner with my finger, the pins would all barely go up or down and would constantly bind. I couldn't feel most of them setting. I'd been using the small tensioner (see the blue arrow). That was the only one I could pick with.
I bought the two padlocks to practice with but could barely get one pin to set on either.
I was sitting frustrated last night, about to post, and I had a feeling the non-noobs would tell me to use a normal tensioner. I decided to give it a shot. I placed it on the top of the keyhole (in front of the pins... I had always been putting them in the bottom). I pressed lightly on the tensioner. I decided to go as slowly as possible. I felt a click on one of the pins as I pushed it. I stopped pushing. I had traditionally been pushing each pin the full travel of the spring. I pushed the next pin very slowly and stopped at the click. I pressed the next (this was the kwikset) and it popped open. My jaw dropped.
I did it again and again. I picked up the Faultless lock. One of the pins began to stick. I kept pressing it with the hook and lowered the tension till it moved - it clicked. The lock opened easily. I opened the Mountain Security lock. I opened the Masterlock. I opened my backdoor. I opened my front door's deadbolt. That was it. It was the tensioner. With the small tensioner, I could not release tension as slightly as I needed to be able to do to make each pin slip. When I had been using the larger tensioner beforehand, I had been jamming it into the bottom of the lock and restricting the turning of the plug.
Anyways, I loaded up the Kwikset with all five pins and opened it easily.
I wanted to share this in case anyone else here who's new is making the same mistake. I also wanted to ask if anyone here knows a place where you can buy security pins. I could find a place to buy them, but I'm interested in buying like 2 or 3 of each type is all. I don't have money for a whole set. Does anyone know where you can buy individual pins? Also, can anyone identify this masterlock? I hear about M1, M3, M5, etc. I looked around but couldn't find a thread in which they were identified.
I really couldn't have made any progress without all of you guys. It's awesome that many of you experienced guys hang around and coach noobs like myself all the time. Your wisdom and posting is invaluable. Thanks.
Eric
